Croup. Croupous {^Pseudo- Membranous) Laryngitis. 143 



interspersed with ecchymotic spots, and the nasal discharge is 

 filamentous, yellow and in time contains shreds of the false 

 membrane which may be gray, greenish or blood-stained. The 

 dyspncEa is liable to be extreme at intervals, especially after a 

 cold night, and seems largely spasmodic. 



Course. The symptoms may be grave and very threatening 

 for from six to twenty-four hours, yet in favorable cases re- 

 covery may take place in three or four days, and very con- 

 stantly by the end of a week. In such cases the false mem- 

 branes have been early detached and expectorated. In fatal 

 cases these membranes remain adherent and increase, the swell- 

 ing lessens the passage which is still further narrowed, or com- 

 pletely closed, by the attendant spasms, and the animal dies 

 asphyxiated. 



Lesions. In fatal cases the laryngeal mucosa is found to be 

 covered with the yellowish layers of false membrane, often of 

 great thickness. Where recent, and only in thin layer over the 

 deep red congested mucosa, it may have the appearance of a 

 thick glairy mucus, but the older layers are dense, thick, and 

 firm, notched at the edges, and blood-stained on their deep aspect, 

 by which they were attached to the violently inflamed mucosa. 

 The mucosa under the membrane seems rough, abraded, and 

 even at points ulcerated, the surface presenting many pus cor- 

 puscles. The membrane is fibrillar with many leucocytes and 

 nuclei, and, in its deeper layer, blood globules. 



Treatment. The affection being somewhat less deadly than in 

 other animals, it may often subside without the same actively 

 antiseptic treatment, yet that treatment when it can be applied 

 is eminently satisfactory. Milder measures, usually adopted 

 consist in sodic sulphate in the drinking water to the extent of 

 gently relaxing the bowels. This incidentally helps to dissolve 

 and loosen the false membranes, so far as it can reach them. 

 Calomel, 10 grains, iron chloride, i dram, and sulphate of 

 quinia, i dram, may be given in honey smeared on the back 

 teeth, to be swallowed at leisure. The throat may be wrapped 

 in damp cloths, wrung out of hot water and covered with dry, 

 or it may be enveloped in a strong mustard poultice for at least 

 an hour. 



Inhalations of vaporized (heated) ammonium chloride, or of 



